Obama wants immigration action

President Barack Obama still intends to take executive actions on immigration, he said Thursday, at the tail end of a summer in which his administration has been reviewing options for moves he can take on his own.

“If I can’t see congressional action, I have to do at least what I can,” he told reporters at the White House. “Have no doubt: In the absence of congressional action, I’m going to do what I can to make sure the system works better.”

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Obama noted the White House has had “a lot of stakeholder discussions.”

Among them are with big business leaders such as representatives for high tech, agriculture and construction interests, who have put forward a range of suggested fixes, from recapturing unused green cards to tweaking existing work authorization programs.

But the biggest ask from immigration-reform advocates is halting deportations for millions of immigrants living here legally and granting them work authorization — similar to the reprieve given to more than 580,000 young undocumented immigrations under a 2012 Obama administration directive.

On Thursday, Obama did little to hint at what specific policy changes will result from his review, which is being led by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and was formally launched in March. Nor did he give a firm timeline of when those actions will be announced — a topic of much speculation among immigration-reform advocates.

Still, Obama did hint that he still holds out some hope for congressional action. “Hope springs eternal that after the midterms, Congress will act,” ?he said.